Dubai leads green initiatives
dubai — Riding on the back of government-owned entities, Dubai is leapfrogging in its endeavours to transform itself into a sustainable and green economy and also to become the world’s cleanest city by 2050.
Speaking at the World Green Economy Summit on Wednesday, industry experts were confident that the UAE will achieve its ambitious goals to reduce carbon footprint and achieving the 75 per cent renewable energy target by 2050.
“Dubai is already contributing remarkably towards that effort of reducing carbon emission and development of green economy. I am quite confident that Dubai will achieve its target of 75 per cent renewable energy,” said Christiana Figueres, former secretary-general of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Hailing the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority’s (Dewa) efforts to bring down solar tariffs to nearly 3 US cents for the 800MW third phase of Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, Figueres stressed that the target is to bring the cost down to one cent per watt.
Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, inaugurated the two-day summit.
Former French president François Hollande, Minister of Climate Change and Environment of UAE Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi and Dewa chief executive and managing director Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer also addressed the conference.
Highlighting Dubai’s leap into a green economy, Ahmad Al Muhairbi, secretary-general of the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy, said the difference between Dubai and others is that the ratio of implementation and executing projects is very high.
He said 1,500MW of projects are under execution in Dubai and this capacity will expand to 5,000 by 2030 at a single site of Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park.
The Dubai Supreme Energy Council launched a green mobility project, which called on government entities to purchase of 10 per cent of green vehicles. “We started
it almost 2 years ago and we have 4,000 vehicles, including 1,000 electric vehicle. Dewa installed 200 charging stations in addition to other stations installed by car suppliers. Then we embarked incentives plan for green mobility by introducing free charging, free registration and free parking by Roads and Transport Authority. Our objective is to reach 10 per cent by 2030 in green mobility, which is equivalent of reducing over 270,000 tonnes carbon emission,” he added.
I am quite confident that Dubai will achieve its target of 75 per cent renewable energy
Christiana Figueres, Former secretary general of UNFCCC
We are planning to add another 150 electric vehicles to reach the 200 mark by 2019
Nasser AbuShehab, CEO of Strategy and Corporate Governance at RTA
“Our ultimate objective is to be the cleanest city by 2050. Green economy, green mobility and green city are all aimed at this target.”
Dubai is also on track to reduce its electricity and water demand by 30 per cent by 2030.
Al Tayer highlighted a number of clean energy projects launched in the UAE, including the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park and Masdar, in addition to various projects undertaken through public-private partnerships.
Al Tayer said that in November, Dubai will organise an international competition for universities to design buildings that run on solar energy. A second edition of the event will take place during Expo 2020.
He also said that the first edition of the summit saw the launch of the first green finance fund worth Dh2.4 billion that forms part of the Dh100 billion ‘Dubai Green Fund’ initiative. The fund aims to finance investments in the clean energy sector through partnerships with financial institutions in order to promote innovative solutions to support green projects locally and internationally.
In order to further cut down on CO2 emission, Nasser AbuShehab, CEO of strategy and corporate governance at RTA, said the authority is using public buses which are equipped with Euro 4 specific engines since 2008. It plans to introduce buses equipped with more environment-friendly Euro 6 engines next year.
“Using these engines contributes to reducing thousands of tonnes of carbon emission. We plan to convert 50 per cent of our existing taxis to hybrid by 2021. Around 50 electric car taxis have been added, including Teslas, in our fleet to support green mobility. We are planning to add another 150 electric vehicles to reach the 200 mark by 2019,” AbuShehab said.
“Sustainability is one of the criteria to evaluate cities. Firstly, this will create a better image. Secondly, if you are leading in this segment, you will be a model for others to follow,” he said, adding that the RTA has a strategy to have 25 per cent of trips via autonomous cars by 2030.
Waddah Ghanem Al Hashmi, senior director for sustainability, operational and business excellence at Enoc, said Dubai and the UAE are very good at producing new concepts.
“[But] it is all about implementation and this is why Dubai can be a driving force for green economy. The biggest challenge faced by the oil and gas industry is that it is not as attractive as it used to be among youth,” he said.